4.30.2009

Remember last week? You know, when I challenged you to see the story in the photo and to even consider writing about it. Well, this is another one of those photos. You can look into it and see the stories. Each of us will see a different one. Some filled with joy, others filled with sorrow, and some filled with pain, while others are loaded with adventure. Don't just look at this photograph. See it. And, once I again, I challenge you to write your story. Long or short. Write it down and see where the photograph takes you.

4.28.2009

Let me introduce you to Kitty. I can't give her a real name because she is not mine and I cannot keep her, but I love her and want to show her to you anyway.

Isn't she just wonderful? The thing of it is, this is not just any old cat. You see, I can't stand cats. I am a dog person. Dogs are fun, they play, they cuddle, they want to be with people all the time, and overall, they have a ton of personality. Cats are stubborn, boring, and pretty much hate people in most cases. Or...they pick one person they like and then hiss at everyone else on the planet. Thus, I am a dog person. Of course, the fact that I have been HORRIBLY allergic to cats for my entire life might play into my dislike for them. You know...anything that automatically makes your eyes burn like fire and stream down rivers of tears beside your suddenly non-functional nose which is trying desperately to accommodate for the complete lack of breathing that your mouth seems to be dealing with....that sort of makes you dislike that thing. Just say'n.

Sooooo....that being said, I was caught a bit off guard by this little wonder of sweet little kittiness! She is amazingly dog-like in nature! She followed me around wherever I went and she wanted to cuddle and be close and she would purr so adorably when I rubbed her sweet little head. And those EYES! Seriously, folks....how cool are THOSE? Totally yellow and creepy even though she is totally cute and adorable! She really is the sweetest cat in the whole wide world. So sweet, that I almost committed to taking drugs for the rest of my life just so she could live with me. Then I came to my senses....

...or my husband gently brought my senses back to me. One or the other? LOL! Actually, he was really funny about it. He thought she was adorable, too, so he didn't touch her or get overly close because he KNEW if he did we would instantly own a cat! LOL! Kitty is a stray. Although, after talking to a few people, I think she now has a home. I'm just sad that it isn't my home. She even matches the dogs, so we could still wear black stuff and only have to avoid whites! I'm not sure what Maggie and Thatcher would have thought of her. I know Thatcher doesn't like attention being taken from her, but she loves to cuddle and it would be so cute for her to have a kitty to cuddle with! Maggie would probably ignore her for most of the time until she did something useful like climb on the counter and bring food down for everyone! LOL! Then Maggie would be best friends with her! LOL! But, alas, she is not ours. She can't be ours. I really can't have a cat. But I do have these wonderful photos to remember the sweetest kitty I've ever met in my life.

P.S. She was much more intereted in cuddling than having her picture taken and I took these with my cell, so I apologize for the so-so photos, but you can see her sweetness anyway.

I love her. I'm such a SUCKER for a cute animal! I swear if I ever run into a cute skunk who happens to be friendly BEWARE! I'll probably try to take her home! LOL!

4.24.2009

Happy Arbor Day! Happy Etsy Day! In honor of trees, paper, and, of course, all things recycled and environmentally friendly, along with celebrating Etsy day I decided to post several wonderful Etsy finds today that honor the Earth and the tradition of paper! I do so love paper!

These gorgeous recycled plastic and tissue paper earrings! (Check out the shop for even more great jewelry!)

These Eco-Magnets are made from 100% recycled paper pulp! How cool are THEY? Wicked cool. That's how cool!

Check out this amazing Rosie The Riveter Collage! It combines two of my favorite things - Girl Power AND recycledness! (Yes...that is a word. Why? Because I said so, that's why. I'm a girl. I get to pick!)

This bracelet is made from recycled paper beads! Holy WOW! Total and utter recycled paper cuteness!

I am SO loving this locket made with recycled paper! Wow! Totally need it!

So, what happens when you take a bunch of newspapers, magazine pages, and other household paper 'trash' and turn them into a bowl? AMAZINGNESS! That's what happens! Do you not LOVE THIS? Because I totally LOVE THIS! For reals.

And with that, I wish you a fabulous Arbor Day! A Fabulous Friday! and a FABULOUS WEEKEND!!!!

P.S. It's supposed to be in the like 80's like all weekend and into next week and so I'm pretty much jumping up and down with excitement on that little factoid! Bring on the tank tops! I'm ready for the sun!!!!!

4.23.2009

Back when I was teaching middle school English one of my favorite things to do to get kids writing on their own was to show them a wonderful picture. Sometimes it was a photo, sometimes it was drawn, painted, or even a sculpture of some kind. Then...I let them write. I gave them nothing more than a visual to begin their journey. This photo is that kind of photograph. It begins a journey that is different for each and every individual who takes in the image. It is yours.

Completely and totally yours.You own the image.

I challenge you to write something. Maybe a few words, maybe a short story, or, if you are really ambitious go ahead and start that novel. Let the image take you away and encapsulate you. Let it become a part of you and seek out all that lies beneath it.

4.22.2009

I apologize for not posting yesterday...I was not feeling well, as that Spring that I was wanting so badly has begun to arrive and now it is attacking in the form of insane allergies! LOL! It figures, huh? Nothing like noticing the new picture of a Puffer Fish in your house and then realizing that you are actually looking at a mirror and that Puffer Fish is your face! But, I'm doing better and happily medicated now, so hoping for a good day!

Today is Earth Day and that is just a great and wonderful thing! To celebrate, I am posting a quick tutorial on making an upcycled Coke can bracelet! I would really love to see your Earth Day posts today, too! So please tell me about them so I can check them out!

Supplies:

One soda can.A pair of good scissors. (I used EK Success Titanium CutterBees)Maybe a set of jewlry plyers to help with the folds.

1. Cut off the top and bottom of a soda can. You want to stay fairly close to the ends, as you will be folding the sides in and for a cuff bracelet you want it nice and wide.

2. Fold in the sides twice so that all sharp edges are folded in. Do this carefully as the cut aluminum is very sharp!

3. I wanted curved ends, so I cut a curve on each end before folding down those edges. This makes the folding rather challenging, but gives a nice finished look.

4. Using a cylinder as a guide, gently curve the metal into shape. You can adjust it to the proper side after doing this, but you want to use a cylinder to get it started to avoid kinks.

5. Put the cuff on to check for size and make any adjustments that may be needed.

And that's it! Nice and easy and a great fun way to let people know that you are an addict. I mean, that you are GREEN! Yeah...that's it....greeeen.....

Link Up Your Earth Day Posts Here! I can't wait to see them! Actually...just for fun....I will do a surprise Earth Day PRIZE for one random winner chosen from those who link up their Earth Day posts. Please be sure to link the specific post and not just your blog. (And...I just figured out this whole Mr. Linky thing, so I am really excited to be trying it out! LOL!)

4.20.2009

If you are an artist, designer, or crafter of any kind you know how wonderful that feeling is when inspiration hits you like a ton of bricks! You know...when your creative mind just takes over and goes head on into full gear. You can't think about anything else and your hands just start itching to grab some supplies and MAKE something! I love it when that happens. For me, inspiration can come from so very many places...It really is all around us! Today, I just wanted to share with you a few things that I have found inspiring lately.

This song is amazing. This is the full version so it is very long, but so worth every moment you spend absorbing it.

Magazines! They can be totally inspiring sometimes! I recently began receiving Body and Soul due to a free sub offer that I got and I have just been thrilled with the covers! They just jump with color and totally make me happy.

This song is a long time favorite and ever inspiring to me. Actually, this is my favorite song of all time.

THIS! Not flowers, so much, but more the weather that we are slowly, but surely seeing creeping in to take over the cold freezingness that we have been bearing for altogether too long. I love 70. I really do.

And I am pretty inspired by these at the moment, too:

I won a pair from The Bright Side Project and I wore them for the first time yesterday and they are FANTASTIC SHOES!!! They are so cute and so high and do wonderful things for my legs. They made me smile. If you haven't checked out the Bright Side Project yet, you TOTALLY should! Talk about an amazing way to find wonderful designers and get to know them, all while answering intriguing and fun questions and reading what others have to say! It's another great source of inspiration!

While those are not the only things that inspire me, that is all for now. I hope something has spurred you on to create! Now...show off what inspires you! I would love to see your posts!

Post about what inspires you and then add a link directly to that post in Mr. Linky! Let's inspire!

I love these photos. I know...arrogant of me to choose pics of myself for the first time I jump in, huh? LOL! No, but really...how often do you TRULY love a photo of yourself? For me...it's not all that often...I generally don't photograph well, so if I find one I like I tend to get a bit excited about it. What I love is that when I look at them I actually see ME. Not just an image of what I look like...but rather I see ALL of me. The truly represent who I am. That makes a photo amazing to me. The lighting isn't the greatest and there are some distractions, but overall, they are photos that I treasure. Even if they are of me. LOL!

Check out Candid Carrie and show me your favorite photos! You can link them up there!

4.16.2009

I made these wonderful little beauties for Easter. Actually, they don't look 'pretty' as I would have liked, but they tasted REALLY good and I was really excited about that!

The cake is Mexican chocolate - the easy Jingle way! LOL! I used a Devil's Food Cake Mix, followed the usual directions on the box...I actually used oil, which is rare for me...usually I replace it with something and you could easily replace it with apple sauce, but I was feeling oily that day! Then...to kick them up a bit I added two teaspoons of cinnamon and one teaspoon of chili powder. WOW! That added SO much! I also mixed in a cup of milk chocolate chips to add texture and they were SO yummy!

The topping is a marshmallow cream butter cream. I mixed an entire jar (7 oz.) of Fluff with butter and confectionery sugar and added unsweetened cocoa powder to chocolate it up! It was wonderful! Not overpoweringly sweet an and didn't taste like a mouthful of butter like butter cream sometimes does (I'm not a big fan of bc, actually, so I find ways to make it taste better! LOL!)

Then I used a peeler to add chocolate curls to the top of each cupcake and used a bit of extra frosting to 'glue' the Peeps down. They really were quite yummy! And the other thing I loved...they lasted a few days before going stale! Some recipes will go in a day or two, so I was thrilled when these made it 4 or 5 days!

You should give it a try! SO yummy!!!

Now...I have a question for you guys...I'm looking for a few fun memes to do...I'm thinking Mondays or Thursday ones....the kind that have a site where you can post your link and see what everyone else posted, too! Anyone have any favorites they would like to share? No promises...I'm just trying to see what all is out there. I love doing Wordless Wednesday, so I figured I'd ask you guys what you love! (Or...if you hate them, tell me that, too...that would be good to know! LOL!)

4.15.2009

First of all, don't forget to check out the AWESOME giveaway posted here.

Now...onto today's ramblings.

Seriously?

Nothing?

Not ONE WORD?

Seriously, folks.

It's true and there is nothing we can do about it.

Nothing. I repeat, NOTHING rhymes with orange.

Yes, I do understand that this is probably not news to you, nor is it a new thing to me. HOWEVER...it has brought to mind something that may be new to you. Do you realize the implications of a basic word in the English language not having ANY other words that rhyme with it? Have you ever stopped to think about this? For REAL, folks! It is simple, straight forward PROOF that our language is none other than inadequate, to say the least. You know how we often struggle to find the right words...we are left speechless...(okay...so I've heard that happens to some people, although, I can't say I've experienced that one myself...), we are left wanting - even NEEDING a better word.

In most cases we blame our own lack of vocabularic knowledge. No...that SO isn't a word, but I figured I'd toss it in there to add to your own personal vocabularic treatise. HOWEVER, the thing of it is...it's not our fault! Okay...so for some people it is totally their fault because they are just dumb and don't value education, but that's a whole other post. For most of us...it is simply because the English language is severely lacking and for NO reason.

Thus, bringing back to Orange. Here we have a collection of letters in the English alphabet that come together to form sounds. Not hard. We all learned that in first grade. HOWEVER; unlike time, prime, crime, and slime; there is not ONE other word in the language that has utilized this grouping. How very wasteful! We SO could be using this combination in other ways!

In Greek there are at least FIVE different words to describe what we call 'love.' FIVE! And we get one. No agape, no eros, no philia, no storge, no thelema (look that one up! It's the fun one! LOL!)...nope! We don't get ANY of that. We just get love. And perhaps the text version 'luv,' but I'm pretty sure that doesn't really count. WHY???? We could have Borange and Sorange, and Quorange, and Zeptorange. We aren't using any of those. So WHY the HECK don't we have words that rhyme with orange. We need them.

That's all I'm say'n.

Oh...here are a couple of cards that I made!

This one is a sympathy card that I made for a friend who lost her Mom. It's been a long struggle, so the Peace theme really fit the situation well. It is really shimmery in real life because I dusted it with Glimmer Mist!

This one is for the Use Your Stash Tag Challenge. You still have a couple more days to get your layouts in, so head over and check it out! Our Design Team cards are going up today!

I used October Afternoon papers on this and stamped the images directly on the tags with Close To My Heart stamps and ink. It was really a rather quick card to pull together, but I like it! It's fun!

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